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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Trying something new

I decided to try something new this year, and I'm really excited about it. I am winter sowing seeds.

I learned about this on the blog A Garden for the House. Anyone with gardens that amazing has to know what they're doing, so if Kevin says it works, I believe him. Now, whether or not it will work for me, remains to be seen. On Sunday, I followed Kevin's step-by-step instructions and planted kale, broccoli and cabbage seeds.

Since D and I never buy milk in gallon bottles, I've been begging work friends to save jugs for me. Never mind the bourbon in the background. Clearly D and I buy plenty of that...


Melting holes in the jugs with a hot screwdriver was fun, but I learned the hard way that it takes a long time for the screwdriver to cool off.


My trusty Swiss army knife worked great for cutting the bottles. And I figured out how to take a picture of my right hand while holding the camera with my left.


Poking holes in the tote box was a little more difficult, but the hot screwdriver did the trick.


Yes, that's a beer bottle in the background. Do these pictures make it look like D and I drink a lot? You should've seen that counter before we took the glass to the recycling.

I filled the jugs in the kitchen without making much of a mess.


Then I put them outside. Our house faces south, and they are right outside the front door for now.


I may put them in the herb garden eventually, but the ground is really uneven and covered with snow, and I couldn't find anything to set them on.

I'm planning to also try rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, tomatoes and peppers. I've never started tomatoes or peppers from seed, so I'll be taking a big leap there. I haven't figured out where I can start seeds indoors at this house yet, so I might put all my faith in milk jugs. What's the worst that can happen? I end up at the garden center buying a lot of plants.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Do you see what I see?


Looks like my beet seeds are going to be fine this year. That's a good thing because I put in all my seed orders this week, and I didn't order any beets.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Testing

One of the problems with gardening on a small scale, like I do, is that every package of seeds you buy has 20 times more seed than you need for a season. I think peas and carrots are the only seeds I've ever managed to use up. The same goes for plants. I don't need 75 onions or 25 asparagus crowns, but it's hard to buy those items in smaller quantities. One way to deal with this is sharing. When I start seeds indoors, I always plant more than I need, so my mom gets the extra broccoli, cabbage and kale starts for her garden. I've given extra onion plants to a co-worker. Even so, in perusing my seed stash for the year, it appears I don't need to buy very many.

I noticed this year that the oldest seeds I have are beet seeds that I bought in 2013. I'm no expert on how long seeds last, but it seemed wise to test these three-year-old seeds so I'm not disappointed later on. I put a few of them in a small container with some water...


and then I looked for a safe, warm spot. We're in the middle of some serious cold, and the temperature in the house varies widely, so I wanted them fairly close to a vent.


They are now tucked under my bathroom counter. The dogs don't go into the bathroom, and they should be far enough back that we won't kick them when we're brushing our teeth. I just need to remember they're there when I vacuum.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

2016 plans

Before I sat down with all of those catalogs, I needed to figure out my plan for the year. Perusing garden catalogs with no plan is dangerous.

The new yard has so much room, and I've got so many things I'd like to do, but I have to pace myself. Even so, once I started brainstorming, I had two pages of notes in no time. Here are the things I hope to accomplish this year:

Front yard:




  • Plant peach tree. It'll go right about in the middle of the above picture, which is between the two linden trees already in the yard.
  • Plant Douglas fir. My mom bought me a tiny Douglas fir this Christmas which will live inside until spring and then get planted somewhere. I'm still trying to figure out where it will fit.
  • Plant Annabelle hydrangeas. I've been reading a book called Design Your Natural Midwest Garden by Patricia Hill. As a result, the long term plans for the front yard, which have always included gardens, are now focused on including as many native plants as possible. Annabelles are gorgeous, and I've got a couple spots in mind for them.


Herb garden:



  • Dig up the last yucca.
  • Dig up those disgusting Stella d'Oro day lilies.
  • Fence. The above picture was taken before we fenced in the front yard. The yard fence now starts at the garage corner on the right side of the photo, comes to the sidewalk, follows the sidewalk to the corner of the bed on the left side, crosses the sidewalk (where the gate is), and runs along the inside of the existing flower bed (see below). This means the entire garden is dog accessible, and Scout has spent an inordinate amount of time wondering around in there this winter. I'll need fence enough along the sidewalk to keep her from trampling my herbs.
  • Bird bath. This one is probably a long term idea, but I would love to have a pretty bird bath in this area.
  • The herbs themselves. There will definitely be basil, chives and rosemary. I'm also contemplating dill, sage, thyme and parsley. When the dill inevitably volunteers in the yard, it will smell like pickles when I mow. 
Flower bed:


This flower bed is exempt from the native/natural plants plan. This one is just for being pretty. I started on it last fall with some new perennials and tulips. What it needs this year:
  • Asiatic lilies in pink, orange and yellow
  • Bearded irises in pink and orange. The ones at the old house were gorgeous, so I need to figure out where I got them.

Edibles:


  • Obviously, the first order of business has to be filling these beds. I know where to get compost in bulk, but I need to find a source for the other parts of my raised bed mix. 
  • I'm working on my garden plan for these beds and will probably post it when it's done. 
  • Blueberries and/or raspberries. I need to figure out where in the yard to put these.
  • Rhubarb. I've got to get some rhubarb planted somewhere.
  • Tomatoes. These are not going in the raised beds. I'm going to take a cue from the prior owners and put them on the wall:
Messy, landscaping nightmare
  • Rocks. The tomato plan necessitates getting rid of some of the ridiculously large river rock currently covering the wall area. 

By the way, who builds a retaining wall and then covers it with the heaviest landscaping material available? Why didn't they plant grass? We've got long term plans for this area that include getting rid of all of the rock, making a gate in the fence so we can pass from front to back yard, and planting more grass or something less awful for walking on than giant river rock.

Rain barrel:


I have to figure out where to put my beloved rain barrel. There are many downspouts, but the easiest ones to work with aren't very close to the vegetable beds, which is where I will use it the most. I think I'm going to end up building a second rain barrel, but top priority is getting this one situated somewhere.

Now that I've figured out all of the things I want to do, I need to review my seed stash. Then I can open those catalogs and start shopping.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

The squirrels of 2015

For as much as I claim to dislike the little critters, I sure take a lot of pictures of them.

January 4, 2015
January 11, 2015
January 31, 2015
February 14, 2015
April 22, 2015 - four in one picture
April 22, 2015
April 25, 2015
August 1, 2015
November 21, 2015
December 5, 2015
December 5, 2015
December 6, 2015
December 14, 2015
December 18, 2015
December 26, 2015
It's probably a good thing I can't take very good pictures through my windows at this house. I hate to think how many squirrel pictures I'd have. This doesn't even count the pictures I've taken with my cell phone.

Maybe I should just admit that the little bastards are cute.